This month Wolf-Man Kehaar and Man-Wolf Matt stare into the darkness without and within, as our Fantastic Creatures series looks in horror at, um, horror. This time we reach into the recesses of our primal fears and talk about:

Vampires, ancient and modern; from predator to love interest.

Werewolves (there wolves!), and fears of the the beast within

Stalkers and Serial Killers

Lovecraftian Horrors

and much more!

Glorious Classic “Horror Express” is in the public domain and can be viewed, in it’s entirery, on YouTube here

Greetings, friends and listeners. Earlier this year we solicited ideas and advice from you all and used that to run an experimental world-building game set on a distant colony world. It was a lot of fun, and we think we (and hopefully you) got something out of it. And so, we want to do it again!

This time we have a loose framework in mind, but want to leave a lot of the ideas open to suggestion once again. We envision our players being the leaders of a convoy of survivors fleeing a realm overrun by the forces of Evil, and seeking a new place to live, or regroup. Think Battlestar Galactica, The Banner Saga, or other similar tales. Send us suggestions of other treatments if there is one you think we should read!

So to get started, the sort of things we need to be thinking about are:

The World:

Who or what is the overlord? His minions and his state?

Who or what is the exiles? Their tensions and their sources of alliance? What groups make up the exiles? What unifies them?

They’re big, scaly and terrifying! No, Matt hasn’t finally been allowed to rant about Dinosaurs, its their fictional cousins, the Dragons! Next time on Dissecting Worlds we are taking aim at these most mythic of mythic creatures, the Dragon – from the pseudo realistic to the grandly magical. If we get time and stay on topic we may branch off to other mythical beasts too, but they can remain elusive and mysterious, the damned things.

Finally, the new series is almost upon us and we are starting our Tenth Series (!) with that most common of fantasy enemies, the Orc. These monsters have been hewn down in their thousands by muscular heroes over the years, but is there more to them that? Where to they come from? Where should they go? We aim to look at the roots of the Orc, the attraction of such boiling hordes and foes, and how they’ve changed over the years, as perhaps nameless savages fit only to be hacked down by civilized heroes is a trope that was in need of some updated. If we get time we’ll have a look at SF equivalents, and Matt will probably wander off into Warhammer 40k unless he’s stopped.

So, with Series 9 in the bag, it’s time to formally unveil Series 10. After some discussion – and thanks for all the feedback on this – we’re going for “Fantastic Creatures”, from traditional fantasy monsters to robots and golems to post-humans and beyond. Hopefully this will all tie into Dissecting Worlds Live! 2, aimed for early next year, and we’ll fill you in on that as we go.

So here is the formal running order.

The Boys are Back in Town: Orcs, Gobins and other Hordes

Here Be Dragons: Mythic Beasts

The Old and Beautiful Ones: Dwarves and Elves, from the Woods to the Stars

Creatures of the Night: Werewolves and other Nightmares

Are we not Men? (Part 1): Artificial People (Golems, Clones, and Droids)

Are We not Men? (Part 2): Planet of the Apes, Uplift, and more.

Conclusions and Feedback

“Orcs” is in currently being fed to the whirring and clanking fantastic beast which is our editing machine, and should be out in the next week or so. As ever, thoughts and suggestions for things to cover in these episodes is always welcome.

The official unveiling of Series 10, including its broad running order. Recommendations Welcome!

Warning: There is some audio chop on this episode we couldn’t get rid of. We’ve made the decision to leave it in, as there was already some feedback we couldn’t cover and it seemed a shame to drop us talking about your contributions. So apologies, and we hope you understand.

Feedback as ever is welcome to @DissectingWrlds on twitter, dissectingworlds@yahoo.co.uk on email, the Facebook Group or below !

It’s been a little quiet here at Dissecting World Towers as we’ve both been beaten around the ears a little with the “Real Life” stick. Some good – like holidays, some bad – like “not holidays”, but all in all it means there will be no episode in June. But we will be back with the long-awaited Spies Feedback episode at the start of July.

Keep an eye on us on twitter and Facebook as things will still be posted up there, and here!